Humans unavoidably have an impact on the environment and are part of the Earth’s systems; unfortunately, often we create problems in these systems, regardless of whether our intentions are good or not. This provides an overview of infrastructure in modern societies (transportation, waste management, energy, food production, product packaging, etc.) and how each uses natural resources and/or impacts the environment.
Goals
- Students will understand how the finely balanced systems that exist in the environment are often seriously impacted by human presence, often in unanticipated ways.
- Students will learn about the functionality of infrastructure required to provide what they take for granted as part of everyday life.
- Students will recognize that a number of industries and products are harmful to the Earth and that careful steps must be taken to minimize our negative impact on the environment.
Objectives
- Students will read case studies (or summaries) of instances when human alteration of the environment caused significant changes to the living and nonliving system. For example, cutting down a forest to build a housing development leads to increased runoff that could more silt (and pollution) to a local river, thereby killing off native plants and animals that feed on them.
- Students will be presented with different scenarios in which people will alter their environment (building roads, applying restrictions on fishing, introducing new species, etc.) and asked to hypothesize about potential problems that may result, both directly and indirectly.
- Students will study their local infrastructure and learn about how various government and private organizations function in respect to their environmental impact and restrictions each type of infrastructure faces. This may be supplemented with, for example, a field trip to the recycling plant or a guest speaker from city government.
Resources & Websites
- U.S. Department of the Interior - Provides information and links for teachers about parks, natural resources, land, water, etc.
- Energy Kid’s Page (Dept. of Energy, Energy Information Administration) - Energy facts, games, classroom activities, science experiments, and helpful links